


Stargazing

by Reading Redhead (readingredhead)



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Comment Fic, Community: comment_fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-24
Updated: 2010-08-24
Packaged: 2017-10-11 05:46:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/109050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readingredhead/pseuds/Reading%20Redhead
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mulder's always looking at the stars, but this time he's not looking alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stargazing

Scully can see her breath form into little particles in the air when she exhales. It’s a cold November night just north of DC and just after midnight, but instead of sitting snuggled amongst her blankets reading a good book and on her way to falling asleep, she’s sitting on a lawn chair atop a small hill watching Mulder set up a telescope.

There’s a strange grace and tenderness in his actions, so unlike his usual movements, that she admires; the way he extends the legs of the tripod, lifts the barrel out of its casing, and gently settles it into the mount until it snicks in place, a delicate sound she can hear only because of the intense silence. She wants to ask if there’s anything she can do to help him, but she suddenly feels that her voice would ring too loudly in the still night air. Instead she continues her vigil while he adjusts the scope, focusing on some celestial object millions of miles away that her naked eyes can’t possibly see.

She shivers a little, and the chair rattles slightly, but he doesn’t notice, or if he does, he doesn’t turn around. Scully rolls her eyes at his back, but she’s not surprised. If asked by anyone else, she wouldn’t have known to make of a situation like this one – is it an attempt to convince her? a date? an ambush? – but she’s gotten so used to not knowing what to make of Mulder that it doesn’t even bother her any more. He asked her here because he trusts her. Whatever that trust means, it’s something she’ll accept with open arms – even if it means she’s sitting outside in the near-freezing weather of an East Coast winter waiting to be allowed a window onto another man’s obsession.

Mulder withdraws so quickly from the telescope that it’s almost a recoil, and it shocks Scully, so her chair tips over backwards and she lands with a thud and muffled curse on the cold hard ground. She slowly pushes herself up, and a sheepish Mulder offers her a hand. “Sorry,” he says, righting the lawn chair. His expression quickly changes to a smile as he adds, “But you’ve got to see this,” taking her hand again and holding it longer this time as he leads her to the lens and a few steps further into his world.


End file.
